Thursday, October 16, 2014

The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood (Penguin Books, October
28, 2014)

23 Beulah Grove, a run-down, cash only apartment building in
South London is most decidedly not a place where everyone knows your name. In fact, it is just the opposite: if you know
what someone calls themselves, you can be pretty sure that isn’t what their
real name is. Body parts and smelly
drains backed up with who knows what are par for the course for this flop
house. Many feel as if they are being
watched, and they probably are, be the closed circuit cameras the smarmy,
grossly obese landlord, but worse of all, Collette, who is on the run from her
former boss who she saw kill someone, finds evidence that the previous tenant
of her apartment was murdered…or at least dismembered…and becomes fearful she
may be next, fairly certain the murderer is a fellow border. One summer evening, a terrible incident leaves
the residents with no choice but to form a most unholy alliance: if one of
their secrets is revealed, they will all be revealed, unraveled. Tight plotting, constant action and
well-dawn, real characters, even with all their odd proclivities, propel Edgar
Award winning Marwood’s sophomore offering to a chilling climax that very few
will have seen coming. A perfect read to
stay up late at night with, especially during the seasons of goblins and ghostly
things.

In this collection of short stories that are fleeting, or
rather the characters and their relationships are fleeting, Taylor examines the
familial bonds, friendships and acquaintances that make up our human experience
but that are often just out of our grasp, the effects not felt for perhaps
years later. At the same time, the
collection feels as if Taylor is having a private joke with himself, perhaps at
the characters’ expense, maybe even at ours, yet with each story there is
something hidden, something that makes us want to stand up and redeem
ourselves. Taylor has an uncanny knack of inserting sentences or phrases that seem
innocent (in “Carol, Alone” the narrator talks about drinking real coffee versus
decaf, musing that people chalk up their need to drink decaf to “Bad hearts…”)
but at the same time, leaving the reader wondering if the phrase might have a
deeper meaning and have been carefully chosen and placed rather than being as
innocuous as they did at first blush. Taylor’s
writing has agelessness about it and is easy and genuine whether he is writing
about high school students, college students, children or retirees. Read individually, these stories and characters
give the reader pause, but when collected and read as a whole, they linger long
past the covers of the book.

After the death of their mother, fifteen year old Sam
McAlister and her ten year old sister Ollie move from Eugene, Oregon to a rural
farm where their father, known as Bear, lives in a teepee in the meadow where
he raises bees and sleeps under the stars.
Sam is used to spending summers with her father, but Ollie never
did. Ollie has not spoken since the
death of their mother, something that happened after their aunt died several
years earlier; unknown to Sam, Ollie sees what she calls Shimmering, the spirits
of those who have died, and not understanding what she sees often frightens the
young girl. Shortly after the two arrive
in Bear’s meadow, the body of a young woman washes up on the shore. Bear becomes an immediate suspect, but Sam
knows in her heart he wouldn’t hurt anyone intentionally, and Ollie knows from
the Shimmering that something evil is out there, closer than the sisters know,
an evil that has been lurking and festering for many years, an evil that can
destroy the McAlisters if left unchecked.
Told in distinctive alternating voices, Sam and Ollie tell their
stories, the story of their past, the story of their present and hint at the
possibility of their futures as Sam is on the verge of being a young woman and
Ollie on the verge of being a teenager and all the changes that comes with
that. The Shimmering that follows Ollie
is used effectively and takes the “ghost story” to a new level as the psychological
tension stays high in this fast paced narrative that will also allow readers
hearts’ to ache for these two young girls who are, at the same time, more lost
than they realize and not nearly as lost as others see them. Crooked
River is a strong debut that combines strong characters coming of age, a
murder and a touch of other worldliness with a natural setting into a taut
thriller.

In the spring of 2009, a group of friends and neighbors
began gathering in a loft in Brooklyn to create and share a meal communally, a
tradition that evolved into a communal cooking center and food website
encouraging the sharing of cooking and dining together as a community: Sunday
Suppers was created. With an emphasis on
farm-fresh, local ingredients, the recipes are often tried and true with a
little bit of a surprise, watermelon salad with lemon and coriander seed
dressing, for example, but all are accessible. The recipes are gathered by the
time of day (Morning, Noon, Afternoon and Evening) and then subdivided into
special events, [Morning] In Bed, a noontime Spring Forager’s Lunch, and
Afternoon Taqueria and an Autumn Dinner for Evening. Easy to read and follow recipes, with
relatively easy to locate ingredients make these meals as easy to create as
they are special. Karen Mordechai, a
photography rand stylist has help to create a beautiful book that is as
beautiful, with plenty of white area on the pages and lovely photos of not only
the finished dishes, but the preparation make the book a pleasure to look at as
well, as it is useful and inspirational.
Cook’s notes help with sourcing some of the harder to find ingredients
and explain the trickier techniques; each occasion begins with a testimonial as
to why each meal should be created and shared and what made it special for the
person. Even though Sunday Suppers is
Brooklyn based, the book and the recipes have a laid back, relaxed feel to
them, much like a lazy Sunday morning, afternoon or evening.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from theBlogging for Booksprogram in exchange for this review.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Growing up in a Roman household with an academic father, a
distant mother and a prettier, older sister, no one could have guessed that Elsa
Schiaparelli would become a taste maker as one of the most innovative fashion
designers of the early twentieth century and that her styles would be embraced especially
by American women, forever changing the way they dress. Biographer Meryle Secrest has taken the life
of this woman, whose name admittedly is not as commonly known today as Chanel,
and has examined and explored the many facets that inspired and drove Schiaparelli. After making a bad marriage to a cad and a
fraud, Schiaparelli found herself deported from Britain and living in Greenwich
Village essentially as a single mother with a seriously ill young daughter
(Gogo contracted polio at a young age).
With a lot of moxy and daring (“Dare to be different” became one of the
quips she was known for) Schiaparelli began accessorizing---hats (that looked
like shoes or were inspired by lamp chops), purses and gloves, and then turned
to the practicalities of the time and women: dresses that wrapped on rather
than went over an elaborate hairdo, and unexpected fabrics and textiles in
unexpected places (otters are good swimmers so why wouldn’t their fur make an
exceptional bathing suit?) and practicality, split skirts turned into
wide-legged long trousers. She was inspired
to be as daring as Dali who painted a dress design for her, a dress that was
instantly snapped up by the Duchess of Windsor as a honeymoon gown. Schiaparelli’s personal life was not nearly
as elegant or glamorous as her public life, rarely seeing her daughter, though
all the time attending to Gogo’s corporal needs. Schiaparelli was also under suspicion as a
spy as the United States neared and entered World War II; her returned to Paris
was marred by this dark cloud, but Schiaparelli was not kept down and continued
to forge ahead. This well researched,
well documented biography is a must read for anyone with an interest in the
popular culture or haute couture of the early twentieth century. Elsa Schiaparelli is a fascinating woman
about whom many more should know much more.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the Blogging for
Books program in exchange for this review.

Build a Better World

The 11th Annual Adult Summer Reading Club has come to a close.

The club's 157 members have read a total of 1,515 books!

Thank you, all, for your enthusiastic participation.

Quote to Inspire

"Fiction, imaginative work that is, is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground, as science may be; fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners."~Virginia Woolf

11th Annual

To see a larger image of this graph, look through the member reviews. It will usually be posted on Friday afternoons.

How to Use this Blog:

To post a review for a book, please submit it via the "Finished a Book" link from the club's webpage: http://www.hclibrary.us/asrc.htm.

Because all posts & comments must be approved by the library, and because the librarians sometimes take summer vacations too, there will be a delay before you see your submission on the blog. Please be patient; your review will appear.